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Overrated?

yoda

Well-known member
Let's start with the SEC...
14 bids to the NCAA Tournament
Oklahoma - ranked as high as #12 during the season, finished in 13th place, still got a bid and lost in the 1st round
Texas - ranked as high as 19th in the polls, finished 14th in the SEC at 6-12, still got a bid and lost in the First Four play-in! Record 16 losses total!
Georgia - ranked as high as 23rd during the season, finished 12th in SEC, lost in the first round
Vanderbilt, Miss State, & Missouri- ranked as high as 24, 14 and 14 respectively- all LOST to mid-majors or LOWER SEEDS
Kentucky - tied for 6-8th in SEC (ranked as high as #4) - still got a 3-seed!

Kansas- had an off year, lost 13 games, but was still ranked #1 thru the season, finished 6th in Big12, still got 7-seed, lost 1st round to a lower seed

Marquette - ranked as high as #5 during the season, finished 4th in the Big East, lost their first round game

ACC got 4 teams in
Clemson, UNC and Louisville all were ranked in the Top 10 during the season - all lost in the first round

San Diego State - ranked as high as #20, lost in the First Four play-in round

Meanwhile teams like Drake & McNeese won 30 & 28 games and knocked off higher seeds.
The NCAA needs to stop rewarding mediocre play by the Power-5 teams and give extra bids to some of the mid-majors
 
The NCAA needs to stop rewarding mediocre play by the Power-5 teams and give extra bids to some of the mid-majors

i agree, but the Power 5 conferences will not tolerate more bids to mid majors, and they run the show. The entire process is rotted and corrupt.
 
It would only change if the viewer ratings dropped and it affected advertising revenue. There is no incentive for Power 5 conferences to allow more deserving mid- majors in the tournament.
 
Let's start with the SEC...
14 bids to the NCAA Tournament
Oklahoma - ranked as high as #12 during the season, finished in 13th place, still got a bid and lost in the 1st round
Texas - ranked as high as 19th in the polls, finished 14th in the SEC at 6-12, still got a bid and lost in the First Four play-in! Record 16 losses total!
Georgia - ranked as high as 23rd during the season, finished 12th in SEC, lost in the first round
Vanderbilt, Miss State, & Missouri- ranked as high as 24, 14 and 14 respectively- all LOST to mid-majors or LOWER SEEDS
Kentucky - tied for 6-8th in SEC (ranked as high as #4) - still got a 3-seed!

Kansas- had an off year, lost 13 games, but was still ranked #1 thru the season, finished 6th in Big12, still got 7-seed, lost 1st round to a lower seed

Marquette - ranked as high as #5 during the season, finished 4th in the Big East, lost their first round game

ACC got 4 teams in
Clemson, UNC and Louisville all were ranked in the Top 10 during the season - all lost in the first round

San Diego State - ranked as high as #20, lost in the First Four play-in round

Meanwhile teams like Drake & McNeese won 30 & 28 games and knocked off higher seeds.
The NCAA needs to stop rewarding mediocre play by the Power-5 teams and give extra bids to some of the mid-majors

This shows why the Tour. is completely biased in giving out at large bids. It also proves that good mid-major teams are better then most bottom feeder big conference teams. Their needs to be better criteria for getting at large bids because the Net as we all know is a F ing joke and needs to be gone.
 
if mid-majors ever do start winning more games in the NCAA Tourney, they will just find more ways, more new rules or restrictions to shut them out.

What's interesting is that now even many of the top Power-5 coaches are bitching about the new rules & NIL...
they hate it because even they have their players "stolen" from them when they have a good team.

Virgina's Tony Bennett & Miami's Jim Larranaga both quit and voiced serious gripes about the system & NIL.

Here's Porter Moser yesterday - earning $3.5 MILLION/year at Oklahoma (NET 43)
Whining about losing his four top players last year (and 14 players total in the past two years) to schools that had greater prestige & more NIL money and how he knows it's gonna happen again this year.

He has one of the best freshmen in the nation in Jeremiah Fears (son of former Bradley Brave Jeremy Fears),
and he knows what's gonna happen now that his season is over.
He's literally emotional about it and hates it because he knows he's
about to get screwed by schools that will offer more money to his best players
.
LINK


Even the coach & team Oklahoma lost to yesterday, who have way more NIL money,
Danny Hurley is pissed because "50% of his team is considering going in the portal"
LINK

BUT - you can be sure that if they discuss or offer any fix, it will not be to the benefit of Mid-majors,
and it will be structured ONLY to benefit the Power-5's
 
Oklahoma is Top 10 in athletic department revenues every year.
Here are the numbers for last year - https://sportsdata.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances

And according to this source, Oklahoma has the 8th highest NIL revenue - $600 million! - https://247sports.com/longformartic...rams-ranked-by-nil-efforts-235181311/#2472525

Of course, like nearly all the schools in the top 50, most of that revenue comes from football, and the NIL is used more there than other sports. But still a sizeable amount of their revenue comes from basketball and from the money they receive from the NCAA and from TV revenues. And no doubt their basketball NIL money is 20 to 100 times what most mid-majors have. So it's real hard for me to feel any sympathy for Porter or any Power Conference program.$
 
Let's start with the SEC...
14 bids to the NCAA Tournament
Oklahoma - ranked as high as #12 during the season, finished in 13th place, still got a bid and lost in the 1st round
Texas - ranked as high as 19th in the polls, finished 14th in the SEC at 6-12, still got a bid and lost in the First Four play-in! Record 16 losses total!
Georgia - ranked as high as 23rd during the season, finished 12th in SEC, lost in the first round
Vanderbilt, Miss State, & Missouri- ranked as high as 24, 14 and 14 respectively- all LOST to mid-majors or LOWER SEEDS
Kentucky - tied for 6-8th in SEC (ranked as high as #4) - still got a 3-seed!

Kansas- had an off year, lost 13 games, but was still ranked #1 thru the season, finished 6th in Big12, still got 7-seed, lost 1st round to a lower seed

Marquette - ranked as high as #5 during the season, finished 4th in the Big East, lost their first round game

ACC got 4 teams in
Clemson, UNC and Louisville all were ranked in the Top 10 during the season - all lost in the first round

San Diego State - ranked as high as #20, lost in the First Four play-in round

Meanwhile teams like Drake & McNeese won 30 & 28 games and knocked off higher seeds.
The NCAA needs to stop rewarding mediocre play by the Power-5 teams and give extra bids to some of the mid-majors

Well said Yoda!
 
The A-10 had one NCAA team and six NIT teams. Every team lost their first round game, except George Mason & Loyola.
George Mason just lost, so their overall record so far is 1-6, with Loyola the only A-10 team left playing Sunday. The MVC is 3-2 with ISU playing Sunday & Bradley playing Tuesday.
 
It would only change if the viewer ratings dropped and it affected advertising revenue. There is no incentive for Power 5 conferences to allow more deserving mid- majors in the tournament.

I actually think this could happen. Wives and girlfriends and many others get involved when there are more “no name” teams on the bracket. Just because you stack the bracket with high majors doesn’t guarantee increased viewership long term.
 
I wonder if the Power 5 will come for the auto bids next?

As we know, the NCAA (owner of the NIT) just eliminated some auto-bids this year in the NIT.
And the idea of eliminating auto-bids in the NCAA Tournament is not new. It has been discussed for the last couple years, and will probably happen soon. -
Tom Izzo Wants NCAA to Look Into Eliminating Automatic Bids for Mid-major Programs - https://www.si.com/college/2024/03/...eliminating-automatic-bids-mid-major-programs

Note that Izzo's teams have been eliminated by several mid-majors- Nevada, George Mason, Memphis, and Middle Tennessee
 
And here we are a few years into new transfer rules and NIL deals, and not one mid-major is in the S16. Everyone said the the last couple of years that NIL and the transfer has no real impact...citing St. Peters, Princeton, FAU, SDSU etc. However, I would say those were flukes and happenstance coming out of the COVID eligibility rules and other factors. Now that we are fully past the COVID issues and the new rules have had time to sink in, it may be the end of seeing mid-majors in the S16 ever again. Colorado State came very close yesterday, until a phenom freshman that would never ever play at a mid-major drove to the hoop and put the game away in the final seconds.

NIL and transfer rules will inevitably concentrate all the talent at the power schools. Another argument from the big schools is that their bench players will transfer down a level to play. However, as we have seen for decades, most players are more than happy to ride the bench at a blue blood or other power program, getting 5 minutes a game of playing time, if it means they get paid and can be part of a winning program. Also by definition this argument is saying less talented players are coming down. And what we have seen is that the bench players from power programs that transfer don't actually go to mid-majors most of the time, they transfer to bottom power conference teams because the money is still better there than at mid-majors.

IMO we are witnessing the death of the sport in real time. It will only get worse.
 
If anyone cares about Women’s NCAA hoops - that’s the way it was and even still is to a lesser degree—
that all the talent for 40 years gravitates to one of just a handful of teams - UConn, Tennessee, Stanford, Notre Dame, Baylor, South Carolina.
those 6 schools account for 11 of the last 12 and 29 of the last 37 National Championships.

it actually made the whole sport somewhat unwatchable and their ratings were awful.

Finally a fresh new team emerged and presto - instant popularity!

I actually won’t shed a tear if the Men’s Sweet 16 ratings drop this year.

All that said - Bradley & Drake have done great carrying the MVC with their success since Covid, I’d maybe throw in the little bit of National press Indiana State got last year, but I won’t cuz they too just lunged for the MONEY and bolted like Loyola and Wichita.
I offer my thanks to the Admin & staff at BU for keeping us in this battle.
 
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